It was called the Summer of
Sorrow. In 1847, thousands of Irish immigrants fled the Potato Famine
and arrived dead and dying at the Québec quarantine station of
Grosse Isle. To its lasting credit, Canada let them in and an Irish immigrant,
Father Bernard McGauran, brought them comfort and a reason to hope. Filmmaker
Lindalee Tracey takes us through the horror of Canada's worst human disaster
and the extraordinary efforts of an unsung hero to rally a multicultural
and multilingual rescue force.

Bernard McGauran immigrated
from Ireland to Canada in the 1830s and took his vows in 1846. A year
later he was assigned to Grosse Isle to comfort the famine victims dying
of typhus and cholera. The Summer of Sorrow was a catastrophe of unprecedented
proportions. At its close was the grim tally of dead - almost 6,000 officially,
close to 15,000 unofficially.

Father McGauran's rescue effort
would have been impossible in Ireland. Heading up a contingent of 42 priests
and 17 pastors on Grosse Isle, Father McGauran united Catholic and Protestant,
English and French, rich and poor. He worked tirelessly and fell under
the deadly pall of typhus himself. Father McGauran was so moved by the
immigrants' plight that, in 1856 he opened St. Brigid's Home, a refuge
for the Irish elderly, orphans and the destitute, that stands today.

Although their disease and
poverty would slow their welcome into the Canadian mainstream, in much
of Québec the Irish were received with kindness - perhaps because
French Canadians understood poverty and exile. Father McGauran's legacy
of tolerance and generosity helped forged those links between the Irish
and Québeçois community that survives today.

Lindalee Tracey, an award-winning
filmmaker and author is a French- and Irish-Canadian. She takes us on
a haunting, emotional journey into the heroism and decency of her own
two cultures and discovers for us, an unsung hero.